How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
Remarkable how the nursery caught the telepathic emanations of the children's minds and created life to fill their every desire. The children thought lions, and there were lions. The children thought zebras, and there were zebras. Sun—sun. Giraffes—giraffes. Death and death. (66)
Like all good virtual reality rooms, the nursery responds to "every desire." Seriously, when will people learn to put safety guards on their virtual reality rooms? Although here's a semi-serious question: what would this story be like if the room had some sort of "child safety lock," like a car door has? Would genius Peter find some way around it?
Quote #5
And although their beds tried very hard, the two adults couldn't be rocked to sleep for another hour. (150)
Check out all the issues Bradbury packs into this one line: a) the beds are almost made into characters in the way that they "tried" to do something; b) they have multiple beds because sex wasn't invented until the 1970s; c) the "adults" are being treated like children or babies—that's who we rock to bed; d) the parents are super nervous. In a word, this quote is dense.
Quote #6
"I don't want to do anything but look and listen and smell; what else is there to do?" (167)
Peter makes the same argument that his dad made in Quote #3: technology is useful because it can make us into fat slobs who don't do anything. (Wall-E anyone?) Except by this time, George is anti-technology, and his son has turned the tables. Bradbury emphasizes this by making Peter say almost exactly the same thing George said, except this time it reads as creepy rather than… not creepy.